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Wednesday, March 21, 2018

An Earful on EarSeeds

"Lend me your ears!"

Earseeds are very bizarre...um...er...devices that are based on acupressure. Acupressure is an offshoot of acupuncture, with the difference being non-invasive (no needles). Both follow the wonky idea of vitalism or life energy flowing through meridians. Meridians and acupuncture points have never been shown to actually exist and neither has this supposed “life energy” been measured. I have had some people try to show me that some meridian lines and acupuncture points do line up with nerves in the body. That is not surprising that some will happen to by chance because there are over 2000 claimed points. I stress again, with that many points one is bound to have some hits that line up with nerves. If one can’t measure the supposed life energy, then any random lining up is meaningless. You can see more from the fine folks at Science Based Medicine here: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/acupuncture-doesnt-work/

I hadn’t heard of EarSeeds until just two days before writing this post. By the name I thought maybe people were putting things in their ear canal. Thankfully this isn’t so. EarSeeds are tiny seeds, metal pellets or crystals (some plated in 24 karat gold) that are placed on acupressure points on the ear, held there by tan adhesive tape. The metal pellets are held in place with clear tape for some reason that is not explained except saying it “is less conspicuous.”

At the bottom they of course have the standard disclaimer “All material on earseeds.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical treatment. The statements on earseeds.com have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, nor are they intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” I’m not sure how it’s educational to learn about this stuff except in the context of learning about bunk and quackery. This disclaimer also discredits their claims (including testimonials which they allow and thus I consider an endorsement of medical claims) on their website of helping with earaches, headaches, back pain, stress and to quit smoking. One claim clearly states “They cured my neck pain.”

Another interesting statement they make shows that acupuncture/acupressure points are not points at all. “Although you do want to get very close to the designated point, the location of the point shown in each condition-specific kit is indicative of that general area.” This is such a red flag that it amazes me that anyone takes this idea seriously.

A key point in noting is that the EarSeeds are not reusable. This makes it very expensive. While the actual plant seeds not being reusable, I can understand. You have to store them in a cool, dry place. You don’t want them growing. So once on your ear, they will come in contact with moisture and bacteria. Yeah you don’t want to reuse those as they would be hard to clean. The metal and crystal ones, I don’t see why you couldn’t clean them. Especially the crystal, gold-plated ones because they are costly starting at $32 for a refill 40 pack. That may seem like a good deal for gold plated crystals, but don’t forget these are small and you need tweezers to put them on.

In a bizarre statement they warn that one should consult a doctor before using if one is pregnant. Is this just a statement to make it seem like that these have some actual medicinal properties? That is just silly.

So if one chooses to wear these as fashion accessory, then I can see a point. If doing it for a medical reason, that just doesn’t make sense. It also begs the question about people with piercings. Do they have less stress aches and pains? One would think that some would be near enough to the general area to do something (if acupressure was an actual thing). Of course this is not the case. Buyer beware.

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